The Seagull's Laughter (2001/2004) (AKA
Mavahlatur)
The mysterious of womanhood again
come to the forefront of a film in the Icelandic comedy
"The Seagull's Laughter." This is one of those "Crazy
Aunt" stories. You know the kind, the ones where a
eccentric or outright insane relative, usually an
aunt, comes to visit a boring and conservative family
and throws everything into chaos. Here it is the late
50's and sexy 20-something Freyja returns to her former
hometown, a small Iceland fishing village, after getting
married, moving to America and then mysteriously becoming
a widow. With trunks of American clothes and an air
of mystery, Freyja becomes the talk of the town.
The protagonist of the Crazy Aunt
stories is usually, of course, a young member of the
family, one who often relates the story in voiceover,
sometimes as a reflection of the past, as if the film
were all flashback. Here the protag is young Agga,
a tomboyish girl who lives with her granny and several
other female family members. The only male, the grandfather,
is away for weeks at a time on fishing boats. Agga
is put out of her bed when Freyja arrives and is obviously
not to happy about this. Instead of relating her concerns
in voiceover, Agga complains to the handsome local
police officer.
While this film is not the funniest
or most unique film to be seen, it certainly is entertaining.
Young Ugla Egilsdottir plays Agga as a quite charming
and an interesting character. While we wonder if her
suspicions about her nutty Aunt Freyja are really
well founded, we certainly see things from the young
girls point of view.
And while the film has some things
that are interesting about the cultural and societal
mores of post WWII Iceland, for the most part we understand
completely what is going on here. There's fighting
families, nasty in-laws, the need to break free of
small town prejudices, and lots of romance and sex,
all the typical points of a Crazy Aunt story.
In the end, "The Seagull's Laughter"
turns out, like all Crazy Aunt stories, to be a coming-of-age
opus in disguise. But here that realization is saved
for the very last moment of the film, when Agga makes
a remarkable and yet wholly realistic realization
and has a change of heart. The ending here, while
a bit too abrupt, is also pointed and poignant without
resorting to Hollywood happy-ending schmaltz. That
alone makes it worth a look.
Note:
In Icelandic with subtitles
The film won several Icelandic film
awards in 2001.
Released in Iceland in October 2001,
the film did not appear in America until February
2004.
Viewed on a VHS screener provided
by the Dobie theater in Austin in April 2004.
